Examples

Page address: https://www.mnsu.edu/affact/xamples.html

What is Disability Discrimination/Harassment?

Examples can include:

• focusing on an individual’s disability rather than their abilities during a job interview;
• delaying providing a course syllabus in large print to a student with a visual impairment;
• scheduling an office party in a location that is inaccessible to an employee who uses a wheelchair;
• Denying employment or educational opportunities to an applicant, employee or student because she/he has a disability.

can include:

• mimicking a co-worker’s speech impairment;
• addressing an individual with a mental or physical disability as “retard” or “crip” or other derogatory or offensive language;
• repeatedly asking the only student in class with an obvious disability, “do you understand?”

What is sexual orientation discrimination/harassment?Examples can include:

• Focusing on an individual’s sexual orientation rather than on their credentials during a job interview.
• denying raises, benefits, promotions, or job performance evaluations on the basis of an individual’s sexual orientation.
• denying an individual access to an educational program due to their sexual orientation.
• engaging in or sanctioning continuing discriminatory conduct, unrelated to the academic discussion in a course or class, thus creating a hostile environment for individual students based on their sexual orientation.

Examples can include:

• Engaging in behaviors and/or conversations designed to harass an individual because of their sexual orientation.
• Sending degrading e-mail messages to someone because of their sexual orientation.
• Spray-painting sexually insulting comments that are based on an individual’s sexual orientation on a residence hall door.

What is sex discrimination?

Examples can include:• Being denied raises, benefits, promotions, or performance evaluations on the basis of the individual’s sex.
• Denying a student access to an educational program based on the student’s sex.
• Engaging in or sanctioning continuing discriminatory conduct, unrelated to the academic discussion in a course or class, thus creating a hostile environment for individual students.

What is sexual harassment?
There are two kinds of sexual harassment.

Quid pro quo, “this for that”, harassment occurs when an individual in a position of power pressures another individual to agree to theirsexual demands.

Hostile environment harassment occurs when repeated, unwelcome behavior or comments focus on the sexuality of another individual or occurs because of the individual’s sex and unreasonably affects that individual’s educational or working environment.

Examples can include:
• Demanding sexual favors in exchange for a promotion or a better grade.
• “Rating” another individual’s body on sex appeal.
• Leaving unwelcome, sexually explicit messages on voice mail.
• Telling off-color jokes or making teasing comments of a sexual nature.
• Unwanted and excessive attention through phone calls, emails, letters, gifts, etc.
• Unwelcome, unnecessary touching, patting, rubbing, or pinching of another individual.
• Using language that is offensive and/or implies inferiority of another individual based on their sex, such as “slut,” “bitch,” “babe,” “stud,” etc.